Sept. 10: The Trinamul Congress today demanded a CBI inquiry into the murder of its Chakdah block committee president, Samir Nag, even as life in Chakdah and the rest of Nadia was crippled by a protest bandh.

Nag was shot dead, allegedly by local CPM workers, when he was returning home on a motorbike on Monday night. The murder sparked Trinamul fury with supporters torching houses and shops of CPM functionaries and blocking traffic.

Mamata Banerjee, who had rushed to Chakdah straight from the Calcutta airport on her return from Delhi last night, said the CPM was targeting her party leaders with an eye on the coming Lok Sabha polls.

“The Marxists are trying to systematically annihilate our district leaders to ensure their nominees’ victory in the elections. But we will not allow them to go unchallenged and resist their nefarious activities with people’s cooperation,” she said in Calcutta.

The bandh threw normal life out of gear, but remained peaceful. Train services were disrupted through the morning after Trinamul supporters blocked the tracks. District magistrate K.J.S. Cheema said shops were closed and attendance at the collectorate was low.

Power failure

Parts of Salt Lake, including Jyoti Basu’s residence, went without power for around 30 minutes from 10 pm on Wednesday after a fault in an SEB sub-station.